Fabless mobile video chip company Movidius Ltd. has launched the MA1133 video processor as the first chip in its Myriad 3-D range, capable of capturing and manipulating stereo imagery on a mobile phone.
Movidius (Dublin, Ireland) claims the chip is the first to be optimized for a 3-D image and stream in high definition (HD) on mobile devices. The chip enables preview, capturing and processing of user-generated 3-D video and images; converting 2-D video to 3-D in real time, with upscaling and playback of content in HD. The same technology will process 3-D images for the best viewing experience on a 3-D display without glasses.
The MA1133 was preceded by the MA1100, the world’s first coprocessor to enable advanced real-time video editing on mobile phones, and MA1101, the Android OS compatible version of the MA1100. These chips are sampling to customers today.
The 3-D capture, image and display processing on the MA1133 benefit from a proprietary multicore processor that delivers 20-GFlops of processing power but at reasonable power consumption suitable for a mobile device.
Movidius’ original chip, launched in 2009 when the company was known as Movidia, was set to be made by TSMC on a 65-nm manufacturing process.
The MA1133 is thought to be substantially, if not entirely, the same core processor as the MA1100 but with different software to extend the software-hardware system to address 3-D and twin video streams, in a manner similar to PicoChip’s use of a multicore processor plus software to create a variety of baseband processors.
“Mobile phones are the place where 3-D technology will gain real adoption the fastest3D entertainment may have started in the cinema, but the phone is something people experience every day,” asserted Sean Mitchell, CEO of Movidius, in a statement. Movidius also argues that smartphones are typically held at a distance that makes them suitable for use with auto-stereoscopic screens and without the need for 3-D glasses.
by Peter Clarke
original post: http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4208956/Mobile-video-processor-goes-3-D